


Hell to Pay

by Bleach_ed_Na_tsu



Series: Afterdeath [3]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Afterlife, Continuation, Gen, what happens when the gaurdians die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23217601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleach_ed_Na_tsu/pseuds/Bleach_ed_Na_tsu
Summary: Spin-off/Continuation of Afterlife and Unlikely Benevolence: Guardian's perspective. Arriving in a garden full of light and warmth, the Guardians thought that they had dreamt about dying and the judgement thereafter, but then their eyes looked up and they realised quickly that their peace was an exchange. Full sum inside. Char death-ish. Can be read alone I think.
Series: Afterdeath [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1669246
Comments: 3
Kudos: 71





	Hell to Pay

**Author's Note:**

> So…hehe, this is yet another spin-off of Afterlife and Unlikely Benevolence. This you should be able to read after Afterlife and beforeUnlikely Benevolence. But if you don't want to/cant here's the things you need to know:
> 
> Tsuna and his guardians died in an explosion.  
> Tsuna was pardoned of his 'sins' while his guardians were sentences to a millennia of time spent in the 2nd level of hell.  
> Tsuna, not taking that offered his soul for theirs, and since he died so young his 'karma' or 'precious soul' was not worth enough to save his guardians' seven souls and his own. Therefore he was sentenced to eternity in hell.
> 
> I wasn't intending to write this (again I know) but the muse hit me after rereading and I wanted to do a Guardian's Reaction side of the entire 'Punishment' series, especially since the idea of what they did without Tsuna was only briefly touched upon in Unlikely Benevolence.
> 
> So enjoy and thank you for your support.

Lambo is the first to arrive, and it's in a flash of panic and white light he lands in the centre of Vongola gardens, dressed in a white tunic and pants, with nothing more than his horns tucked into shaggy hair.

He remembers brightness, sympathy, and a warm hand. He remembers repenting and defending. He remembers sorrow in a pair of green eyes.

" _You are so young, to think I must condemn you. All because of your brother."_

"Tsu-nii was the best thing to happen to me! Take that back!"

He remembers blackness and a scowl, and then a warmth. _"I suppose he was, given what he's just done for you. Enjoy your peace."_

But there was no peace, because Lambo remember the smell of charred flesh and wood and the sobs and the screams. He can remember Ryohei trying to keep him awake, and Chrome, and Tsuna.

Where was Tsuna?

And he's running. Full speed towards the mansion, because it was burning and his famiglia was trapped inside.

Except, here he stopped, it wasn't burning. It looked completely new; there wasn't even the giant splash of paint from when Ryohei and Takeshi tried to cover up the fact that they'd put a hole in the wall while trying to combine baseball, boxing, and flames together one afternoon.

The eerie unfamiliar image made Lambo take steps back, whirling around and running in random directions, tears streaming from his eyes.

"Tsu-nii! Bakadera! Chrome-nee! Anyone?! Where are you?! Take-nii! Ryo-nii! Where are you?! What did I do, I'll apologize, anyone?! I-Pin?! Fuuta-nii!" Lambo sobbed, lightning flames flashing just under the surface, refusing to materialise along the rods at his head.

Lambo sprinted around. He sprinted and sobbed, and tried to get out. But there were no walls. There was no exit. The house was a lonely maze.

Lambo crouched on the floor; head in his hands, screaming, screaming for someone, anyone to answer.

He didn't want to be alone again. Not like when he was a baby at Bovino Mansion.

* * *

Chrome is only aware of a startling brightness, a warm hand on her head, and then the crushing embrace painfully familiar from years since past. _"For once, I am glad that I must give you peace. You child deserve rest, you're a strong soul."_

When she blinks, Lambo is in her arms sniffling like he isn't eighteen years old, like he was five again and Chrome was new to the family and he needed that female influence.

She holds him tight, blinking at the beautiful garden around them. "Wh-where are the others, Lambo? Where are we?"

The boy sniffles, but straightens as his eyes scan the area for danger. "I don't know, Neechan. Last I remember w-was the mansion burning!"

Both their eyes widen as the memories flash behind their eyes, then more memories of blood. Warm hands and a kiss on their scalps, then the sorrowful voice:

" _You have been pardoned; make it worth it."_

"W-when will the others get here? D-Did we die?" Lambo holds Chrome this time, her head to his chest as his eyes flicker around. He had his panic, now his sister was in potential danger in this unknown space.

"I don't know. I'm sure they'll get here soon."

* * *

Ryohei remembers fire; he remember throwing out sun flames as large as the sun itself in a vain attempt to heal what damage had already taken his family. Ryohei remembers the scent of his own seared flesh burning with chemicals and wood after the assassination attempt on the family.

Ryohei remembers, he tried to save Tsuna, the image of the burnt chest, and the debris pinning his gut had Ryohei near heaving.

He remembers failing, and a buzzing.

Then all he remembers is questions. He remembers having to validate every action he's ever taken for Tsuna's sake. He remembers sneers and disapproval.

He remembers burning with pride, because he loved his little brother, he loved Tsuna's Vongola.

Ryohei remembers asking if Tsuna suffered in death, and he remembers not believing the man when he said 'No, he rests with a light heart'.

Ryohei remembers being sentenced to hell, and later a pardon.

Ryohei remembers screaming about who gave their freedom, and then Ryohei remembers nothing but white light.

He, like Lambo, sprints head long towards the Mansion as soon as he lands and the blinding light lets him see again. His feet stutter and he tries vainly to pull his flames to his hands; if he can just get there fast enough maybe he can save Tsuna at least.

Maybe he can save them all.

But then he hears his name called on sweet –oh lord so sweet –voices and he changes his course, tackling Chrome and Lambo to the floor and kissing their heads.

"I'm sorry. You're alright. I couldn't help you." In that horribly sombre voice he used during the time that Tsuna faked his death.

"But we're here." Gasped out, clutching to the big man who was her rock, her family's bolder and sun all these years, and there are tears.

"We're together Onii-san!" Lambo reiterated, clinging to him to. Not caring that the man's bulk is crushing him.

"Ah, we're together, and nothing TO THE EXTREME is going to take us apart. Not this time. I won't let it."

"We won't let it."

Ryohei nods, his eyes sweeping the gardens, the field, and finally the mansion. A quiver of unease floods him when he sees how immaculate it is. His hands search his person for his ring, for his box, for his gloves, for anything. His mind searches for his flame and though it burns strong, it refuses to surface.

"I thought I was going to hell."

"S-So did we." Chrome explains, her hands wringing the edge of her dress.

"So where are we?"

"I don't know….I just hope everyone else gets here soon."

"Ah, I'm sure they will, Lambo!" Ryohei sooths, running a hand over the boy's hair. "You know Tako-head and Takeshi! They're probably with Tsuna right now. And Mukuro and Kyouya always take their sweet time!"

Ryohei laughed, and together he and the pair of guardians walked towards the mansion, they had time to burn, and they might as well see what other changes occurred here in this eerie illusion while they waited for the others to make a game plan.

After all the Vongola weren't ones to sit back and do nothing about an unknown situation.

* * *

Takeshi growls at the man in front of him. The questioning, the judgment had gone on for eternity it seemed. Takeshi had gone along with a grin and a carefree manner, sitting calmly, answering where he could, and changing opinions where he could force it.

But the man had _dared_ bad mouth his famiglia.

"Don't you dare pin this on Tsuna. He's a great guy, a better brother to me. I won't let you make disgusting accusations; it's not cool man."

Takeshi was trying vainly to keep his temper under control; this was the man who was going to give him a sentence if Takeshi was where he suspected he was. The rain guardian maintained that every single one of his fellow guardians were good people; they deserved peace and not suffering.

" _You say that after he pulled you into this fiasco; made you think it was a game? He is the worst of your lot. He even dragged the youngest one, Lambo Bovino, back into the mafia after he managed to escape. Tsunayoshi Sawada deserves punishment."_

Takeshi's eyes sharpened and the King observed with intrigue as water began pooling at his feet and a rain storm brewed.

"Tsuna didn't drag anyone into anything. This _game_ was of my making. Was my way of dealing with what I had chosen; nothing is more serious than a game to me. So don't you dare bad mouth Tsuna when he didn't want this or us in it either!"

" _So Reborn is the one to blame. Should he be punished when he arrives?"_

"None of us are evil; you are the one pushing punishment onto us! We tried; we tried to save the mafia, to save people. Does that not count for anything in your realm of omnipotence?!"

Takeshi had never heard such venom in his own voice, yet he felt no shame in it. In fact, the man seemed pleased with his response.

" _You are kind but tainted. You deserve as much punishment as your kinsmen, yet I know you will be spoken for."_ The king patted a hand on Takeshi's head and warmth flooded the baseball player. _"Go peacefully young man, that natural ability to kill will get you in trouble here if you dally."_

The next thing Takeshi was aware of was his curiosity and rage blunted. He could feel the irate flames writhe, agitating the air, yet at the same time a wave of serenity descended on him. He felt…completely free.

"Chrome?"

Purple eyes met his and she was in his arms, laughing and crying, Lambo and Ryohei sprinting quickly after her.

"Rain man!"

"Takeshi-nii!"

"Oho! Takeshi, you made it!"

"Aha, I did!" Takeshi smiled, but it faltered, "Where is here? W-We died didn't we?"

"Ah," Ryohei confirmed, looking around with narrow eyes as Chrome took Lambo away, "so why we're here and we're not being punished I don't know."

"Not you too, I just got done telling that weird old man that we aren't ba-"

Ryohei raised a brow as Takeshi stopped. Suddenly they both forgot who they spoke with before arriving; suddenly the irate flames in both their chests were almost gone, replaced with a buzzed kind of anaesthesia.

Takeshi's eyes roamed to the mansion, and the spark of memory listed the toxic sleepiness. "I don't like this."

"Neither do I. But we can't do much til we're all together."

"No, we're strongest as one. How long has it been?"

"We can't tell." Ryohei admitted, rubbing his arms as he felt the creep of sleepiness. "There's no day or night, or fatigue. Just…existence."

"I don't like this."

But then Lambo and Chrome were calling and the men had to smile and grit their teeth. Takeshi grinned and folded his arms behind his head.

"Maa maa, how about we make a bet as to who is arriving next, ne?"

"I say the stupid cloud." Lambo scoffed.

"I…I think Tsuna will."

Ryohei and Takeshi looked at each other and nodded. "Mukuro."

* * *

Mukuro didn't even bother repenting. He didn't bother to hide the trembling in his arms and legs when the man entered the judgement room. He didn't stop the quiver of his kanji and didn't fight the shackles.

How many life times had he been through judgement?

How many more life times was he going to see hell?

" _Oh, no argument? No, '_ but I was better in this life, I deserve peace' _young man?"_

"Kufufu, sometimes you have to admit when you're done. Illusionists are realists."

The man didn't look convinced, yet he nodded his head. _"I shall….take your honesty into consideration."_ Mukuro was content with that.

His eyes still burned and he quaked; he didn't want to go to hell, not after tasting heaven in Tsunayoshi's family with his dear Chrome.

Not after all he'd done; all the good he never thought he'd see.

But Mukuro just smirked and laughed when the guards took him, he laughed when he entered the first realm of Hell and the sick hysteria make all the guard queasy. The first six would be easy. He could fall back, he had been there done that. He had tasted hell-cake on level five that rivalled any foods on earth and had sipped the elixir of realm two. Nothing on the first six could haunt Mukuro.

But after that….after that he was terrified.

Mukuro wasn't even aware of passing through the first level of Hell before he was wretched into the light by a steady hand, one that kept him standing even as his knees wavered in preparation for the torture of the second level.

Except it never came.

Instead he was back in the judgement room, this time though the gloom was gone, and the room was stained a familiar orange.

" _You have a reprise."_ The judge explained, shifting papers and not really looking at Mukuro.

"You've….taken into account-."

" _No, not that….an outside source has pleaded for you…and has shortened your sentence in hell."_

The man spoke on eggshells and Mukuro couldn't help the flicker in his eyes. He grew weary of word games quickly into them. "Then how long am I to stay in those dreary levels?"

" _You are done."_

"Excuse me?" Mukuro's eyebrow raised in scepticism, because surely not even a hundred _hours_ had passed yet.

" _You are done. Your sky has pleaded your case and you are free now; you will join the others momentarily."_

Mukuro exploded before he knew what he was doing, softened shackles coming out to hold him in place. "What did Tsunayoshi do?! What did he sacrifice for this?!"

The man's face fell and he looked half way between angry and exhausted.

" _His own freedom."_

Mukuro landed in the gardens right next to Chrome, who squealed and latched herself quickly to the man's waist; sobbing about missing him and thinking she would never see him again.

"You two lost the bet, now you owe us!" Takeshi chuckled ignoring the startled look on the illusionists face, he had learnt to disregard those things and save Mukuro the embarrassment as he got used to being physically in place.

"Pfft. And what could we possibly bet in this place? We don't even have our weapons." Lambo scoffed.

Mukuro startled in Chrome's arms, searching through his consciousness for his flames, and his trident. When he couldn't find them he stiffened and panicked, except Chrome's embrace soothed him.

"We need to stay calm until we're all gather; then we'll figure out what's wrong." She whispered so that Mukuro could react accordingly and not make a fool of himself, the others gave him the luxury, arguing amongst themselves as if they hadn't just died horrifically.

"Now Lambo, just 'cause you lost doesn't mean you can go back on the bet! That's not EXTREME!"

The rest scoffed and argued, while Mukuro observed with cold eyes and sudden annoyance. He didn't like this, not at all. He searched himself for his illusions, growing more frustrated when they weren't there.

What made him more furious was the nagging in his fuzzy mind that he had missed something. It felt like he should be distraught and furious at someone, yet he couldn't remember who or what.

That made a stone form in his gut that he couldn't dislodge.

* * *

Kyouya burst into the glade with eyes blazing, his hands itching for his tonfa even as he realised they were not there.

He swept through the glade, eyes wild and heart pounding against his chest, his mind thrumming about his farce of a trial and the green eyes that met his when he was taken away.

" _You are a monster."_ The man spoke it like innocent fact, and Kyouya smirked.

"Only herbivores see it as such."

" _I've never seen such blood thirst in someone who refrained from killing for so long. Even still, of call the guardians you are the most tainted; the most kills under your belt- you even killed your boss at one point. What a cruel creature you are."_

Cloud flames burst from Kyouya's form, billowing out at his irritation and fury grew. But he smirked, a blood thirsty smirk. "I did, I implemented it so that the omnivore could die twice, and I killed him in my weapon once."

" _Yet you're not repentant."_

"I followed my instinct. I needed the omnivore stronger, I needed a rein. He was the one I chose to hold it. I don't let the weak hold any of my weaknesses, let alone them all."

" _Even in death I can taste you thirst for a fight."_ The King's distain was palpable and Kyouya grew more confident from it, smirking with a smug air about him. _"My kingdom needs not such aggression. You can join your other kinsmen; your filthy souls will never touch my land."_

Even as the darkness flooded Kyouya's vision, dragging him down and choking him out, blinding him and taking his senses he smirked before panic set in.

"That is why you're an herbivore and I'm a carnivore, and Tsunayoshi will be the only Omnivore."

Except, the choking darkness that took all of Kyouya's honed senses didn't last. He knew but a moment of agony before he was thrown into a grey room where those green eyes met his again.

" _I loathe allowing such a violent soul, who seeks nothing but blood and injury into my kingdom, but I must keep my word to a pure soul no matter how impossible."_ The king's hand touch Kyouya's head though he flinched back and glared, suspicion pooled in the cloud guardian's stomach even before the final sentence was uttered. _"I don't know what your Omnivore sees in you, but my word is my word."_

And before Kyouya could protest he was dropped unforgivingly into the gardens, surrounded by the other guardians. But whereas the sky was vast and the forests were wide, and though it was exactly replicating of the Vongola grounds they had spend the last ten or so living years, Kyouya had never felt more confined. The smell was wrong and the burn of the sun felt foreign and invading.

Something about the gardens, and the guardians made him feel choked; the way his flames refused to materialise, and the way he didn't seem to _care_ about it, choked him even more.

"Kyouya!" Takeshi's smile was in place and he was swinging an arm over Kyouya's shoulders, "You took a while…I think. Anything interesting happen?"

And though Kyouya shoved him away, he faltered. "I…can't remember."

"Maa maa. Maybe you will soon, we're remembering little bits now and then."

"Hn."

The strangeness that not one soul recognised was the stifling of their flame, as each new body entered the glade; serenity seemed to bleed from the earth itself, sucking all fight from the souls whose lives were fighting.

Pupils dilated unnoticed, and soothing hums lulled them. They didn't notice. Not once felt the missing flame, not one felt their resolve quelled.

Though, not one missed the emptiness that came with missing members of their brood.

* * *

With the Guardians trialled in order and weight of their sinner's soul, the last to be judged before the Boss was the right hand. The go between, the enforcer, and the buffer. The man whose soul went out for his boss, and whose orders were final, were heavier in some ways than the bosses.

Yet the King could see his worth, the shining purity polished by the orange soul's presence. It was a shame, the King thought, just five more years, just five mortal years and these souls may well have been able to save themselves, just by being within the arms and aura of Tsunayoshi and his influence.

Alas, rules were made and hell awaited them; or else it should have. Instead the king could only look at spitting green, watch the man's flames and soul explode and implode at the suggestion that he'd be taken from his Boss.

" _You have been spared. Take this third chance to heart; for it is from the same soul that gave you your second."_

Then all Hayato was aware of was a press on his temple, and white light.

Hayato was the last to arrive and within a moment his green eyes were narrowed with calculations and realisation, he roamed the white figured with bare-recognition, until he heard their voices.

Voices he had come to terms with never hearing again once he received his preliminary sentence from the sentient being he had no right to believe in.

"Yakyuu-baka?"

Takeshi spun on his heel, a smile rippling across his face. "Haya! You're here. We were wondering when you'd get here….wherever here is…"

Even Hayato was floored. Because, where exactly were they? It looked like the Vongola grounds. But something felt amiss about it. Something felt final and constricting about it. Hayato's skin itched.

"Tako-head!"

"Bakadera-nii!"

Hayato turned to find Lambo and Ryohei jogging over to him from the tree line to his left. Something still felt wrong but he found himself ruffling the eighteen year old cow child's hair and knocking fists with Ryohei in a semblance of normalcy.

Even the skylark was strolling over, a miffed look on his face as his eyes swung left and right. His hands were fisting and releasing, and Hayato noticed the man was no longer wearing a suit and was missing his weapons; they were all in peasant-type white clothes, none of them with weapons; even Chrome was missing her adorable gothic eye-patch in place of a lily-shaped one.

Something was so off about the picture. Everyone was too tranquil. Even Mukuro had this weird calm about his face, his eyes were soothed, and the kanji in his eye was blurred so that it was almost pupil-like.

But then there was screaming. Chrome's screaming. Eyes whipped around to their little sister and her twin–who was all but –as they stared at the sky. Hayato's head whipped upwards in an instant, and he saw Takeshi's following with those terrifying Hitman eyes that were part of Reborn's pride. Kyouya was snarling before full realisation hit Hayato.

And he saw it.

The sky. It wasn't theirs. It wasn't the sky they knew; it was a wash of pale blue with the barest wisps of pathetic clouds. It was pale with a sun burning with ardent beauty.

But. It. Wasn't. Their. Sky.

Then Mukuro was on the move, long limbs and purple hair was suddenly moving towards the centre of the gardens –so much like their own mansions gardens that Chrome and Tsuna tended with care –a trident in his hands formed at the same time as the heavy perspiration on the man's brow, and he was slamming it into the ground and rocking the illusion around them.

 _How could he be so_ _ **stupid**_ , Hayato had his Vongola gear on in a second with simply a thought –and the pull at his gut ignored even though it seared –and all the guardians with all their weapons were running. Sprinting at the newly formed gate, lead by Mukuro of all people, their fists and fire and swords and lighting striking the wall as even Ryohei and Lambo realised what was missing.

Their everything. Their Sky. Their Tsuna was missing.

He was missing with a nauseating finality as every single guardians felt before they knew the memories of pardon and of warm hands. Of soft smiles and promises from long before they were Vongola, when first they were only children fighting for life against assassins.

"Give him back! You bastards, how dare you take him?! How dare you give us freedom and condemn him!" Mukuro's voice was shattering; but there was a roar around him.

Hayato realised that he was screaming too. "Give Juudaime back! You bastards have no right to keep him."

They were all screaming, and their flames roared in tandem; resolved to get their sky back.

"What have you done with the Omnivore?!"

"Give Nii-san back to us!"

"Not EXTREME AT ALL!"

"Don't make Bossu suffer, please!"

"Release Tsuna or I swear we'll bring this place down around your ears!"

Hayato doesn't know how long they fought, how long their exhausted their reserves, relentless, knowing that their boss was suffering in some _hell hole_ while they sat around and did nothing.

But bring the place down they did. In a moment, a crack, and in another there was a rain of brick and white stone with dust and dirt swirling between fire and cloud. The gardens flickered for a digital moment before the high walls appeared and the gates crashed down.

Though instantly, before Hayato could even stop his torrent of flames, before even Mukuro could break the physical illusions, there were guards; formless accent-less forms descended, led by two forms with blazing orange souls, the rest with a myriad of flame colour.

And then the guardians' flames died away and disappeared; though the guardians could feel the burning, the tell that the dying will was still alive and could not be truly controlled by these….beings, even though their flames could be manhandled.

They felt _dirty._

The red-eyed, orange soul that spoke had a deft finality; Chrome and Lambo could hear a sorrow. It was like their Boss and Brother when he came to terms with having to punish an enemy or friend.

" _Rest easy souls, you are free. The damage you inflict here is for naught. For your sentence is set."_

"Where is Tsunayoshi?!" Kyouya and Mukuro didn't even blink at their unison; not this time, maybe never more.

" _He is serving his punishment; you will not see him again."_

Their thunderous screams shook the beings, but the gate was back in place, the digital shuddering had the image of their gardens, and the mansion, back in place. Momentarily the guardians just screamed in defiance, trying to call up their flames and their weaponry; for the longest time it wouldn't come and they resorted to fists and legs and screams and roars.

"What did that idiot do?!" Hayato's voice should have grown hoarse. But apparently in this paradise such things as exhaustion, hunger, thirst, and need were only figments.

If you wanted them you got them, and the only need any of the guardians had on their minds was Tsunayoshi, and it seemed that that was the one need they would not get with thought alone.

* * *

When Reborn arrive, what felt like both a millennia and a blink later, the guardians didn't bother staring at the pure clothes, or relaxed shoulders. They didn't bother examining the pure shock riddling his expression, or the fury when half-realisation met the cogs in his mind.

All Reborn could see were ripped cloths, red eyes and blotchy cheeks burned by tears. Shrieks and roars, and sobs met his ears and shattered the peace he had brought with him to, wait _no this was not hell, where was he? Why were his wards with him, surely they were pardoned, surely their hearts meant something to whatever bastard god sentenced them_. Reborn could smell not the summer flowers around him, but the tang of dying will flames of every sort, though one was missing. The sweetest and most savoury of them all, the one that accented every flame perfectly; the binder to the slew of sent and colour.

Where were their sky flames?

Kyouya had half a mind to seethe at the man while he assaulted yet another gate.

It was just gates. Just gate after gate, just guard after formless, shapeless guard. But never answers, never answers and never Tsunayoshi!

"He's paid for our souls. The stupid Herbivore paid for _our_ souls!"

Never had anyone –not Takeshi in all his training with the man, nor Mukuro with all the fury Reborn had directed at him once upon a time –seen Reborn pull out Leon quite so quickly or release quite the barrage of yellow bullets; never that big, never that destructive.

The gate fell before the barrage was done.

The guard appeared soon after.

" _Ah, black soul. I see you have arrived safely. I will let the pure soul know."_

But Reborn's eyes pinned him before he could leave and before he could shut the gate around them again.

"Why am I here?" Reborn's eyes narrowed and his white clothes flickered black for a moment.

" _The pure soul, Tsunayoshi, pleaded your case. He has taken your punishment onto himself to ensure you, and these seven may rest easy forever. So_ _ **rest easy**_ _, do not make our pure soul's suffering be in vain. Already the King weeps."_

With that, and a scowl on a suddenly humanised face, the being was gone, and two gates dropped down, though this time the illusion only held towards the back of the gardens, where the guardians and Reborn stood there was only the white wall and the gates.

And then there was nothing but fire.

* * *

They fought and they screamed, and gate after gate crashed down around them. The guards stopped coming after a few thousand year. They gave up reasoning with the souls. If this was the heaven they wanted, if this was the peace they sought then let them have it.

The king gave every soul exactly what they wanted. If they wanted sleep they got it, if they wanted war they got it. If they wanted silence they would receive it, if they wanted busy chatter it was given.

These souls wanted the idea that if they broke enough gates they could reach their sky.

 **So be it** , the king thought, **give them gates.**

Yet still the intrigue was there. He watched those burning orange eyes that whispered the names of the souls breaking those walls as if they were saints and not himself.

The king wished that the boy were an angel, only orange souls could lead and the rest could only attain the level of soldier in his lands, and this boy –this orange soul –was one in a million, the King's own kin. But his rules were absolute. His rules were unbendable, unbreakable.

He was omnipotent.

The King's eyes widened.

" _Richard."_

" _Yes, my lord?"_

" _We are going."_

The king watched, he stood there in between reality and dream and dropped the tortured soul in the midst of his guardians. The king almost cried when those eyes, disbelieving but hoping burned amber. He saw the reality of the boy; the boy thought this another torture.

How cruel the soul was to himself.

So he soothed the soul with his one greatest gift that he bestowed on the boy's head. When his lips touched so too did his pardon.

" _Walk freely now, Tsunayoshi."_

And the boy cried.

* * *

They were fighting. They were fighting, they were fighting. They wanted, they needed their sky. Yet it seemed the only thing they couldn't get when they asked. They couldn't even get a scent of his warmth.

And then Tsuna appeared, wide eyed, broken _oh so very broken_ but when he saw them when his golden eyes –still so beautiful and pure and resolved –looked upon the guardians he collapsed and sobbed.

And the guardians touched him and kissed his cheeks and held him close and let the broken man heal, with flame and touch and love, and promise.

And also no shortage of sobbed reprimand because he had been an absolute idiot. They could not find peace without him, would never be able to in an eternity and beyond.

Hayato thought he heard rumbled laughter, satisfied and content, before the walls around them started crumbling and their world became less restrictive and lonely.

Suddenly they were not alone, their sky and their world widened and the guardians witnessed every other member of their broad _famiglia_ entering the scene; all looking ragged, their flames exhausted but burning brighter when they saw Tsuna.

Xanxus and the Varia, Nono and the other Vongola bosses and guardians; Dino and the Cavallone, and even Enma and the Shimon, they were all there. Everyone Tsuna had ever had an influence over, or who had allied themselves to him in some way. From Shamal to Byakuran and Uni. Suddenly the guardians weren't alone. Tsuna wasn't alone, and their paradise wasn't so secluded; it more resembled the world they had dreamed of when they had solemn thoughts of heaven and the afterlife.

* * *

None of the guardians, and not even Reborn knew how much time had passed since Tsuna was back in their arms.

But one day they 'woke up' from the hazy lucidity of heaven sleep to find the sky dyed a hundred thousand changing colours, flooding from blue to orange and changing through the day; something they hadn't seen since they were alive.

That day Tsuna laughed, and suddenly it was like the light was back in the world. Tsuna turned to them, with a bright smile and a bright laughter, words dropping from his lips in lilted happiness.

The guardians could finally relax.

Just like they promised when they were children, when the threat of dying was first suggested and Tsuna had quelled their worries with a bright smile, and a bright laughter.

" _We'll all end up together, then we don't have to worry, ne?"_


End file.
